Narrow Road to the Deep North: A Journey Into the Interior of Alaska

Abandoning her sojourn in Paris's literary culture in her late 20s, McNamara traveled to Alaska in 1976 ""to learn how to live."" The oil industry was ravaging Alaska's vast spaces and, together with alcohol and drugs, eroding the fundamental values of the Athabaskan people. As an itinerant poetry teacher in the school districts of Alaska's interior, McNamara both witnessed and participated in the heartbreaking efforts of these people to fend off the destruction of their culture. Rich with affectionate, precise profiles of native people and white outsiders, McNamara's story centers in part on her brief and increasingly conflicted relationship with F, a graceful and troubled Dena'ina Athabaskan man, ""a warrior-hunter, taken out of time, out of place."" While living in F's small village, McNamara struggled to understand the knowledge that is deeply woven into the timeless and mysterious stories that ""illuminate and preserve life"" and that lie at the heart of Dena'ina existence. She found that acquiring such knowledge demands attention to ordinary and meaning-laden Dena'ina protocol: eye contact or the lack thereof, the avoidance of confrontation, and the acknowledgment of the physicality and spirituality of other animals. Above all, as McNamara's ""second mother,"" Malfa, explained, she had to pay attention to how language is used: ""`We like to talk around the subject.... We like to use gestures.... When we talk, it's like we're dancing.'"" This finely wrought, layered story makes clear that McNamara absorbed Malfa's advice and was forever changed by it. Whether writing about intimate relationships, poetry or the intricacies of village life, her approach is full of grace and equanimity. (Feb.)